Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/06530_Field_TCUM T95.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 993b | 16 lines

of the offending organ, sense, or function. Thus, the stimulus
to new invention is the stress of acceleration of pace and
increase of load. For example, in the case of the wheel as an
extension of the foot, the pressure of new burdens resulting
from the acceleration of exchange by written and monetary
media was the immediate occasion of the extension or
“amputation” of this function from our bodies. The wheel as a
counter-irritant to increased burdens, in turn, brings about a
new intensity of action by its amplification of a separate or
isolated function (the feet in rotation). Such amplification is
bearable by the nervous system only through numbness or
blocking of perception. This is the sense of the Narcissus myth.
The young man’s image is a self-amputation or extension
induced by irritating pressures. As counter-irritant, the image
produces a generalized numbness or shock that declines
recognition. Self-amputation forbids self-recognition.